Category: News and Views

There is a Facebook disease going around and it is spreading like wild fire. I have thought long and hard about a name for it and have come up with the name Amenitist. Those stricken with Amenitist lose their ability to think rationally once they see the word AMEN on a post and will like and type AMEN as requested no matter how ridiculous that article is. It can be the picture of a cute baby or of someone that is sick, often times cancer patients. Even posts that threatens seven years of bad luck if you don’t respond gets a like and a Amen. Many of the pictures are taken off the internet and used without the owner’s permission.

You could say that’s not so bad and you would be right. However it goes much deeper than that, these Farmers as they are called put out a lot of fabricated stories. For example there is one about a prostitute who had her womb removed. She became a Christian and got married and was able to give birth to a child even though she had no womb. There was one recently showing the picture of a banana plant with a bunch of banana almost a mile long (photo shopped of course.) Last week I saw one of a giant baby that a woman supposedly gave birth to. It was in fact a sculpture and it was outdoors but the hundreds of thousands who typed Amen seemed to think it was real and I found myself thinking have people lost their minds?

Don’t get me wrong for this is no laughing matter. People stricken with Amenitist as I said before lose their cognitive ability to think rationally. Once like and type Amen appears on a post they cannot resist this pull, this overpowering urge to like the post and type the word Amen. Think carefully the next time before you type Amen. Ask yourself these questions, is this a prayer, is this story real am I responding to a reasonable post, or am I stricken with the disease Amenitist?

Keep warm and stay safe as we ride out this storm!

In the present situation where gun violence is such a big problem in America should someone running for president be making these statements?

Donald Trump said he found the State of the Union address really boring and very hard to watch. This is not surprising because President Obama did not act belligerent. He did not call anyone names, try to belittle women or question anyone’s place of birth. The president did not spew out hate towards anyone. In his usual charismatic manner President Obama delivered a most eloquent State of the Union Address. Delivering rational and eloquent speeches is not in Trump’s DNA so of course he is going to find it boring.

The Republicans are a bunch of dimwitted, egoistic, overbearing people who believe they have to be right at all cost. They are once again on their ego trip proclaiming that Obama’s plan for gun control will not stem gun violence. Australia tried it and it worked so why not America?

The Republican’s desire to support the NRA outweighs their desire to try and save the lives of innocent children and adults. And why should they….they have never experienced that agonizing, heart-wrenching moment of looking at a dead son or daughter, knowing that they are never coming home. They don’t know what it feels like to have to bury a child or a loved one whose life has been brutally cut short because of gun violence. In fact they don’t care much about lives. They will not hesitate to send our sons and daughters off to war.

It is the constitutional right of the American people to bear arms and stronger gun laws will in no way infringe on those rights as the Republicans would have you believe. Every law abiding American citizen will continue to be able to exercise their rights to bear arms. Stronger gun laws are designed to keep guns out of the wrong hands. Doing more stringent background checks will help. We cannot continue to put guns in the hands of people with mental issues, terrorists, and people with a record of domestic violence and not expect to have repercussions.

I urge people to think clearly and vote wisely in the next election. We cannot support people who believe it is more important to support the NRA rather than to support measures to curtail gun violence. Measures to save lives must take precedence over ego and the desire to always be right.

President Obama is considering taking executive action to tighten gun control. His proposal calls for unlicensed gun dealers to get licenses and for greater background checks. He also proposes preventing people with a record of domestic violence from owning guns. Of course his announcement is already getting mixed reviews. Those who are not tired of saying R.I.P do not think there is need for tighter gun laws. No one has died for them yet. I do know if it is a lack of understanding that causes people not to want to see gun reform. President Obama is not trying to prevent law abiding citizens from owning guns. What he is trying to do is to keep the guns out of the wrong
hands. There is a big difference. It is time for us to act now to save lives tomorrow. We must stop accepting it as the norm to say R.I.P for people whose lives we could have saved.

Ethan Couch is once again in the news and not for a good reason. Should we be surprised that he is in trouble again? I think not. Here is a young man who got drunk got behind the wheel and killed four people. In his defense his lawyer claimed that he was too rich to know right from wrong. The judge deemed him too rich to serve prison time and gave him a slap on the wrist – ten years probation. His punishment was to banish him to a luxury treatment center where he could continue to live a life of affluence and continue to not know right from wrong. The only thing Ethan Couch came away learning from this incident was that if you are rich enough you can get away with just about anything. Are we now surprised that he would continue along the same road that got him into trouble the first place? Sadly the punishment by law for people who drink and drive was not applied to Ethan Couch.